La moral social en los valores

In this section I will elaborate issues brought up in the research data. Ponderings presented in the following discussion are intended to support the data analysis and offer deeper, varied insight to language attitudes, perceptions and other themes addressed in the data gathering process.

Upon describing the practices and functions of their own language use some of the informants stumbled upon language political and ideological dilemmas. These notions sparked further discussion during the interviews and I will further elaborate the relevance of language politics and ideologies in multilingual context. This section will also cover two different approaches to English use at Wolt: English as a part of code-switching and English as the company-wide lingua franca.

6.1 Language attitudes and their effects on company level

Language attitudes and their effects on the company level are perhaps the most visible in terms of the workers’ productivity. As Krugman describes, “productivity measures how efficiently production inputs, such as labour and capital, are being used to produce a given level of output (Krugman 1994).”

Krugman’s (1994) rather straight-forward and economic view of productivity might seem like a declamatory approach to topics discussed in this thesis. It should be noted, however, that in this respect language use is considered as a part of work at Wolt – in other words language use can be viewed as a method for making financial gain.

Lewis (1975, cited in Baker 1992) mentions economic and social communication importance as an aspect of language attitudes. As mentioned, this refers to the workers’ motivation to be as fluent as possible in a certain language in order to perform in their work. Research data indicates that on company-wide level workers strive for the most prolific and efficient working methods and best results.

Company-wide language attitudes can also be seen in the language policies at Wolt. All Wolt employees have been instructed to use English in all company-wide and international communication. Wolt employees have also been instructed to switch the language of a conversation to English as soon as a non-native speaker of the local language joins the conversation.

Language policies have been communicated to the workers collectively. The research data indicates that Wolt employees consider communicational policies at Wolt functional and clear in most cases.

6.2 Language attitudes and their effects on personal level

Operating in one’s non-native language is certainly an aspect that both constructs and determines one’s attitude towards language use. The interview data indicates that being able to operate in more than one language is viewed as a highly desirable trait. The same remark has been made by Alenezi (2010: 14) as he investigated how multilingual learners perceive code-switching. Alenezi (2010) found that while operating and learning unilingually is considered simple and functional, learners view code-switching as a linguistic tool that supports learning and understanding.

Both Alenezi’s (2010) findings and the research data can be paralleled with Lewis’ (1975, cited in Baker 1992) dimensional approaches to language attitudes. Lewis (1975, cited in Baker 1992) describes economic and social communication importance as an individual’s valuation of language knowledge and desire to improve their competence in order to perform better in their work. Research data clearly indicates that Wolt workers taking part in the research actively strive towards the best possible performance and consciously seek for the optimal working methods. As mentioned, English language competence among Wolt workers is high. Regardless of the prevalent, significantly efficient language skill level workers still report that they are willing to perfect their English skills even further – this is supported by Smith (1971), who proposes that having a positive attitude towards a language boosts learning.

Research data shows instances where informants express “love for their mother tongue.” Here I will refer to Smith’s (1971) depiction of attitude. Smith (1971: 82) states that “an attitude is a relatively enduring organization of beliefs around an object or a situation, predisposing one to respond in some preferential manner.” Informants claiming love for their mother tongue can certainly be described as an expression of attitude towards their native language. The interview data shows that even though nearly all informants specified that they cherish their native tongue and value it greatly, they still sometimes prefer communicating in their non-native language professionally.

Communicating multilingually is often viewed as a highly desirable and beneficial as suggested by Alenezi (2010: 10). The interview data, however, proposes an intriguing model of perception among

the informants. The interview data shows that informants admit to consciously separating languages into two entities – English and their mother tongue, for instance. Upon further analysis of the interviews it became evident that the division between languages is linked to the aforementioned “love for one’s language.”

Informants elaborate that they actively try to avoid mixing languages in order to honor their own mother tongue. It should be highlighted, however, that the notions of “contaminating one’s own mother tongue” and “languages interfering with one another” were brought up on the informants’ behalf solely during the first half of the interview. The first part of the interviews addressed code- switching specifically.

The research data implies that the some of the negative aspects regarding language use at Wolt are linked to code-switching. The interview data shows that while informants recognize that code- switching simplifies the work the everyday work at Wolt concerns regarding language contamination still arise. It is noteworthy as well that informants show doubts about English use solely in reference to code-switching.

The second part of the interviews focused on using English as the company-wide lingua franca. Upon discussing the function and importance of English in the informants’ professional and personal lives the approach on the informants’ behalf was more relaxed. As Baker (1992: 29) notes, one’s language attitude indicates the interlocutor’s stance towards language preference, for instance. Based on Baker’s (1992) remark and the trends in interview data it can be argued that informants show differing attitudes and approaches towards English used in code-switching and English used holistically as the company-wide official language of communication.

The second part of the interviews focused on the informants’ views and insights regarding professional English use and their own skill levels and contribution for the company. Relevant insights regarding informants’ view of their (multilingual) contribution for the company are addressed especially in responses to one of the interview questions, do you feel that your contribution at work has ever been affected by using a non-native language? As can be seen in the interview data, informants are rather unanimous in this regard. Over half of the informants point out that the language they use at work does not play any role in their contribution for the company. Interview data shows instances of Wolt workers noticing their language skills developing further as they have used English frequently in their everyday work.

In regard to developing language skills Cook (2003) points out that lingual multi-competence not only means that interlocutors are fluent in their mother tongue and languages they have been studying for a long time they also are constantly developing in the blended language variety that could, for instance, occur during code-switching at work. Informants mention that their feeling of confidence regarding using English professionally has increased as the workers have gained more experience of speaking English at Wolt.